We need a modern user interface to better service different internal or external customers

Typical Scenarios

The existing COBOL application is working well and serving internal customers well. However there are now demands like:-

• We need to provide a simple browser interface so our external customer can perform certain queries or transactions in a self-service fashion over the internet.
• Mobile internal users need access to certain functions from phones or PDAs
• Call centre users need a productive GUI to service common queries 80% faster    

Servicing requirements via re-use

Often a different language from COBOL needs to be used to meet the user interface requirements but regardless of the language used for the user interface there is no need to re-write any of the original COBOL business processing logic - this code can all be re-used. Although, depending on the architecture of the application, some infrastructure code may be required to support the communication between the user interface and the business processing code.

In a typical COBOL application, the user interface code is a relatively small percentage of the overall code and often the new user interface required is for a different set of users, so the original user interface is still required i.e. often the business demand requires an additional user interface to supplement rather than replace the original user interface.

There are many options available to provide new user interfaces and the most approriate one will depend on the specific requirement, the existing architecture and the type of user interface required.

• Micro Focus includes its own GUI user interface design tools aimed at COBOL programmers which many customer find adequate for their needs
• Micro Focus also include Microsoft’s Winform/WebForm painters and these can be used to create more contemporary user interfaces that work with COBOL applications
• Other Microsoft languages like VB.NET and C# can be used for the front end and Micro Focus COBOL can interoperate with these
• Java and Java toolkits can also be used for the front end and again Micro Focus COBOL can interoperate with Java
• 3^rd Party thin client technology can also be used to create rich user interfaces without re-architecting traditional character based COBOL applications
• Micro Focus also includes tooling to expose existing programmable interfaces as , for example, a Web services so they can accessed from any front end or application than can consume Web services    

The above technologies can be coupled to COBOL in various ways ranging from standards based implementations such as Web services to client-server solutions using products such as MQSeries, Micro Focus middleware or other proprietary forms of middleware connectivity.